Abbey-Roads2

He has cancer.

I’m sure everyone has already heard the news that Senator Edward Kennedy has been diagnosed with a malignant brain cancer that happens to be rather aggressive…  

People my age who remember where they were and what they were doing - when Jack Kennedy was elected to the presidency of the United States - pretty much feel we grew up with the Kennedy’s, hence the first name/nick-name familiarity.  Teddy, the brother who survived, became a sort of caretaker for the rest of the family; so like him or not, he carried the torch for the entire family all of these years.  As the second longest serving senator in US Senate history, he may have wielded more influence on this nation than any president - yes, for better or worse.

All of that aside, the man is probably going to die, and just like any other relative or friend, black or white sheep, I’m praying for him.  The most important thing in life is the salvation of our soul; Teddy needs our prayers as much as we will need them for ourselves when our last days arrive.  His mother Rose would appreciate that as well. 

I live, yet no true life I know,
And, living thus expectantly,
I die because I do not die.

Since this new death in life
Estranged from self my life has been,
For now I live a life unseen:
The Lord has claimed me as His own.
My heart I gave Him for His throne,
Whereon He wrote indelibly:
“I die because I do not die.”

Within this prison house divine,
Prison of love whereby I live,
My God Himself to me doth give,
And liberate this heart of mine,
And, as with love I yearn and pine,
With God my prisoner I sigh:
“I die because I do not die.”

How tedious is this life below,
This exile with its grief and pains.
This dungeon and these cruel chains
In which the soul is forced to go!
Straining to leave this life of woe,
With anguish sharp and deep I cry:
“I die because I do not die.”

How bitter our existence ere
We come at last the Lord to meet!
For, though the soul finds loving sweet,
The waiting time is hard to bear.
Oh, from this leaden weight of care,
My God relieve me speedily,
Who die because I do not die.

I only live because I know
That death and hope is all the more secure
Since death and life together go.
death, thou life-creator, lo!
I wait upon thee, come thou nigh:
I die because I do not die.

Consider, life, love’s potency
And cease to cause me grief and pain.
Reflect, I beg, that, thee to gain,
I first must lose thee utterly.
Then, death, come pleasantly to me.
Come softly: undismayed am I
Who die because I do not die.

That life, with life beyond recall,
Is truly life for evermore:
Until this present life be over
We cannot savor life at all.
So, death, retreat not at my call,
For life through death I can descry
Who die because I do not die.

O life, what service can I pay
Unto my God who lives in me
Save if I first abandon thee
That I may merit thee for aye?
Such yearning for my Spouse have I,
Dying because I do not die. - St. Teresa of Avila

The apostle of the Holy Name of Jesus.

The entire Gospel is contained in the Holy Name.  The Holy Name of Jesus is all powerful against evil. 

Let us pray.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Who said, “Ask and you shall receive, seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Grant, we beseech you, to us your suppliants, the gift of your most divine love, that we may love you with our whole heart, and in all our words and works, and never cease from praising you.

O Lord, give us a perpetual fear as well as love of your Holy Name, for you never cease to govern those you establish upon the strength of your love. Who lives and reigns world without end. R. Amen.

St. Bernadine of Siena, herald of the Holy Name, pray for us in the name of Jesus that we may be set on fire with that seraphic love which burned in your heart for the salvation of souls!  Amen. 

Quoting Cardinal Siri on the importance of the Divine Office.

“You, dear members of the Chapter of Canons of the Cathedral, taking care of the liturgical actions that take place here, remember that everything in us draws force from personal and liturgical prayer. It is still Cardinal Siri to stress that “the most venerable and most holy action, worthy of any consideration and respect, of every honour and distinction, which is performed in a diocese, is the solemn celebration of the persolvation of the Divine Office, i.e. what you do … The whole diocese, and in a certain sense the whole Church, prays through your lips. The duty of the diocesan family of the faithful is discharged towards God above all with this your prayer” (Towards the Congress “Worship of the Lord”. Pastoral Letter to the Canons, 24 January 1953).” -  The Holy Father in Genoa.

The Divine Office is the solemn duty of priests, monks and nuns.  Many of the laity faithfully pray the Liturgy of the Hours as well, although they are not obliged to do so.

Thousands of women in the UK have had four or more abortions.

I know, I know.  In our pro-life vs. pro-choice age we can’t say anything bad about the mother who kills her unborn child,  because she is really the  victim in all of this.  Just because she is pregnant - in or out of wedlock - doesn’t mean the choice to kill her baby was entirely her fault.

Long ago, in the olden days, it was common to say an unmarried woman who became pregnant and opted for marriage, “had to get married“.  Now days, when marriage is out of fashion, many say, she “had to get an abortion“.  See how the woman is victimized?  And to suggest that the woman acted immorally, or that her dead baby was the real victim, is to victimize the poor mother twice.

Department of Health figures uncovered by this newspaper show that during 2006 more than 3,800 women underwent at least their fourth abortion, including more than 1,300 who were on their fifth or more. Of more than 60,000 women who underwent a “repeat” abortion, almost 15,000 were on their third.

These included 65 women who had their sixth abortion by the age of 30, and 82 girls aged under 18 who had already experienced three, and more than 50 women who had had eight abortions or more.

On Saturday night, campaigners for legal changes expressed shock at the picture uncovered. Dr Peter Saunders, general secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said: “This is just so grotesquely bleak.” He said the situation was “approaching the sorts of things we used to hear about Soviet Russia.

“When you try to imagine a woman who has had eight abortions, or perhaps more, it is absolutely clear that she is using it as a form of contraception.” - Telegraph 

Evidently repeated abortions are so much more convenient than carrying a baby to term. 

The Redeemer, and the Sanctifier.

Or, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”.  The latter is our profession of faith in the Blessed Trinity, the former describes what the Divine Persons do.

Thus through faith we come to understand that one of the essential points of our existence is not what we do… it is what we are.

“Who are you Lord, and what am I?” - Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi in ecstacy. 

Infinite communion of love.

In the words of the Carmelite Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen: “In the presence of the unspeakable mystery of the Trinity, the highest praise is silence, the silence of the soul that adores, knowing that it is incapable of praising or glorifying the divine Majesty worthily.” - Tea at Trianon

Don’t jump on me ever again.

Homosexuals* should not be admitted to Holy Orders.  Okay?  Whenever I say that,  SSA men who want to be a priest, get pissed.  It’s the rules - I understand them, why can’t other people?  (Well, something is wrong with modern thinking, so what can I say?)

Anyway - Fr. Zuhlsdorf has the full story - and here is an excerpt:

In reference to the Document of the Congregation for Catholic Education, ‘Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders‘, published by the aforementioned Dicastery on 4 November 2005, and in consequence of numerous requests for clarification which have reached the Apostolic See, it state precisely that the dispositions contained in said Instruction are in force for all the housesof formation for the priesthood, including those which [juridically] depend on the Dicasteries for Oriental Churches, for the Evangelization of Peoples, and for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.The Supreme Pontiff, on the 8th day of April of the year of the Lord of 2008 approved this clarification.  - WDTPRS

Thanks to Ray at Stella for the tip.

*[T]he Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, believes it necessary to state clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders [1] those who practise homosexuality, [2] present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or [3] support the so-called “gay culture”. - Fr. Z.

Slice, dice, dissect all you want.  That’s it in a nut-cup - I mean, nutshell!

Link:

Vatican affirms prohibition. 

 St. Paschal Baylon, May 17.

It was actually St. Paschal Baylon who inspired me to sit outside locked churches in order to pray before the Blessed Sacrament.  (Someone at my parish may have found out I do this because they posted a sign that the church will now remain open until 9:30 PM for visits to the Blessed Sacrament.)  Legend has it the saint was at work in the fields and heard the church bells at the time of the consecration during Mass, and from there he adored the Eucharist that appeared to him miraculously.

St Paschal was a simple shepherd in the kingdom of Aragon in Spain before becoming a religious.  He entered the Alcantarine Franciscans in Montfort, Spain. He was known for his intense love of the holy Eucharist and spent hours in adoration before the tabernacle. In his duties as a lay brother he remained intimately united to the silent loving action of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. He was a model of simplicity, humility, and recollection.

The photo at the top is of a reliquary I have of several Franciscan saints with St. Paschal in the center.  (I scanned it and it came out badly, my apologies.  Go here and click on the image  to see it enlarged for better, but blurry detail.)

Did you know that when a person is close to death or is asking for his intercession, sometimes, oftentimes, St. Paschal causes a knocking sound - it’s an auricular manifestation of his presence, or a warning to prepare for death. I haven’t heard anything yet. I should clarify this, the sounds emanate from either one of his images or his relics. 

It is said at his funeral when he was laid out in the Church that during the consecration he sat up and gazed at the Eucharist. The truth in hagiography police dismiss it, claiming that since they did not embalm in those days, it could have simply been a natural phenomenon - many corpses have been known to make spontaneous movements. I guess it has something to do with rigor mortis. However, I like to believe even his body was adoring the Blessed Sacrament - “My body sleeps, but my spirit keeps vigil” - as the psalmist says.

St. Paschal pray for us and please remember your friend Shayne, whose birthday it is today.